Soon You’ll Be Able to Use Your Hotel Key Card to Get Free Wine

The next time you check into an Element Hotel, you may find yourself face-to-face with a drink cart in the lobby, ready to dispense a glass of complimentary vino with the wave of your room key card.

Earlier this week, Marriott International welcomed guests to a pop up innovation lab for attendees at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit in Los Angeles. The temporary lab served as a showcase for new food and beverage concepts being considered by the parent company of Aloft, Element, and 28 other hotel brands.

In addition to the wine cart, Marriott also revealed a new room design for its extended-stay Element properties that features a communal room in the center of four guest rooms. The design provides a collaborative space for groups who might need a private setting for meetings or lounging, according to the company.

Marriott also revealed a new menu of healthy food options for its Aloft-branded hotels that includes customized made-to-order to-go “pots” that have fresh local ingredients, including avocado, quinoa, and spinach.

Currently Marriott manages 116 Aloft hotels and 23 Element properties around the world, with more on the way.

The Aloft brand has already begun experimenting with voice-activated smart rooms in Boston and Santa Clara and and a robot room service delivery called Botlr at its locations in Cupertino and Silicon Valley. Marriott’s first hotel innovation lab, the M Beta hotel at the Charlotte Marriott City Center in North Carolina, opened last fall with new room designs, a digital fitness studio, and experimental food and beverage offerings. Marriott is working with Sestra Systems to create the new wine-on-tap concept.

Though an official launch date hasn’t been announced for the new food offerings since the concepts are still in development, the company says the free wine should appear at Element hotels by January 2018 and would be limited to two glasses per guest.